"Breakers ahead!" This was followed by peals of discordant laughter. Terrified, I strained my ears for every sound,--and all at once some-one spoke to me quite closely, as though the very darkness around me had found a tongue. "Breakers ahead! Throughout the world, storm and danger and doom! Doom and Death!--but afterwards--Life!" A certain intonation in these words filled me with such frantic horror that I fell on my knees in abject misery, and almost prayed to the God I had through all my life disbelieved in and denied. But I was too mad with fear to find words;--the dense blackness,--the horrid uproar of the wind and sea,--the infuriated and confused shouting,--all this was to my mind as though hell itself had broken loose, and I could only kneel dumbly and tremble. Suddenly a swirling sound as of an approaching monstrous whirlwind made itself heard above all the rest of the din,--a sound that gradually resolved itself into a howling chorus of thousands of voices sweeping along on the gusty blast,----fierce cries were mingled with the jarring thunder, and I leapt erect as I caught the words of the clangorous shout-- "AVE SATHANAS! AVE!" Rigidly upright, with limbs stiffening for sheer terror, I stood listening,--the waves seemed to roar "AVE SATHANAS!"--the wind shrieked it to the thunder,--the lightning wrote it in a snaky line of fire on the darkness "AVE SATHANAS!" My brain swam round and grew full to bursting,--I was going mad,--raving mad surely!--or why should I thus distinctly hear such unmeaning sounds as these? With a sudden access of superhuman force I threw the whole weight of my body against the door of my cabin in a delirious effort to break it open,--it yielded slightly,--and I prepared myself for another rush and similar attempt,--when all at once it was flung widely back, admitting a stream of pale light, and Lucio, wrapped in heavy shrouding garments, confronted me. "Follow me, Geoffrey Tempest,--" he said in low clear tones--"Your time has come!" As he spoke, all self-possession deserted me,--the terrors of the storm, and now the terror of his presence, overwhelmed my strength, and I stretched out my hands to him appealingly, unknowing what I did or said. "For God's sake...!" I began wildly. He silenced me by an imperious gesture. "Spare me your prayers! For God's sake, for your own sake, and for mine! Follow!"